Poverty rate in India reduced to half !

Over 270 million people in India moved out of poverty in the decade since 2005-06 and the poverty rate in the country nearly halved over the 10-year period, a promising sign that poverty is being tackled globally, according to latest estimates.

The 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) said that about 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional poverty globally.

While there is much that needs to be done to tackle poverty globally, there are “promising signs that such poverty can be – and is being – tackled.”

The Index noted that in India, 271 million people moved out of poverty between 2005/06 and 2015/16. The poverty rate in the country has nearly halved, falling from 55 per cent to 28 per cent over the ten-year period.

India is the first country for which progress over time has been estimated.

The 2018 figures, which are now closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, cover almost three-quarters of the world’s population. Multidimensional poverty is found in all developing regions of the world, but it is particularly acute – and significant – in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The latest data also reveals the vast majority – 1.1 billion – of the multidimensional poor live in rural areas around the world, where poverty rates, at 36 per cent, are four times higher than among those living in urban areas.